(The following list was assembled from knowledgeable nonprofit Internet websites.)

Offsetting your avoidable carbon emissions is a practical and immediate way to take ownership of your personal contribution to reduce global warming. With many of the actions listed below, you’re addressing global economic inequality too.

Even though these personal actions by themselves will not prevent escalating global warming from becoming irreversible (only collective action to establish new verifiable and enforceable International climate laws will do that), these personal actions will help to slow and lessen global warming and they will serve as the basis for maintaining a healthy average global temperature once we have fixed global warming.

1. Eat less animal products.

The single most important thing you can personally do to reduce your carbon footprint and reduce global warming is not to get a electric car, insulate your house, or cut your hot water use by 60%--it is to eat significantly less meat and dairy products! Global agribusiness (the cattle, pigs, chickens, fish, etc. industry) is THE single leading cause of global warming and climate destabilization when its total carbon and methane climate polluting greenhouse gas emission effects are taken into account.

One study has estimated global agribusiness is responsible for a whopping 51% of all global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, the fossil fuel industry is estimated to be responsible for just 40% of all carbon and methane greenhouse gas emissions.

Eating less animal meat and dairy products is the top of the list action for reducing your carbon footprint. Eating no animal or dairy products as a vegetarian or vegan is more effective by many, many times than by doing any one of the other individual eco-footprint lowering activities listed below. In some cases, it may even be more effective than all the other carbon lowering activities listed below are taken as a whole!

Vegan and vegetarian diets generate a whopping 42 percent fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and have dramatically lower overall environmental impacts than non vegetarian diets do. Consider this: eating a plant-based diet less than one day per week reduces more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than buying local food all year long and switching to a full-time plant-based diet results in greater GHG reductions than switching from a sedan to a hybrid vehicle.

If you cannot cut out all animal products and become a full vegetarian or vegan, at least start a program of eating less animal and dairy products. Try to reduce your animal and dairy dietary intake first to one day a week, then two days a week and so on.

Everything counts. Begin to eat 20% or less of the animal products that you are eating now for 3 - 6 months. Once you hit your first target, keep reducing your animal intake by another 20% less over the next 3 -6 months and continue until you are either animal and dairy products free or you are eating very little of them.

To learn the science behind why dramatically reducing your animal and dairy products intake or becoming a vegetarian or vegan is so important to the planet's climate future and fixing global warming go to the following why lower your animal products intake facts page.Here you will learn exactly what great things your dietary changes will be doing for the planet: http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/ (We also strongly recommend that you watch the documentary called Cowspiracy now on Netflix.)

To help you make this important dietary transition and save money on food, read Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman. In it, you will not only learn about how to have a wonderful, tasty diet that will reduce your carbon footprint and help save the planet from global warming--you will also learn how a new “low to no” animal products diet will help you become far healthier, look better, and live longer than you ever dreamed possible.

Want more documentation on why evolving your diet towards less animal products is the single biggest personal action you can take to reduce global warming without even considering how it will also improve your appearance, health and longevity? Please see the following two articles on how you can "vote" on a global warming reduction solution with your "low or no" animal products diet.

Never forget that the single most effective and leveraged action any individual can take to reduce both their carbon footprint and global warming is to reduce or eliminate their consumption of animal and dairy products!

2. Walk, bike, or carpool

In the US, 40% of all trips are two miles or less; 90% of those trips are taken by car. If one out of 10 people switched to an alternative form of transportation, CO2 emissions would drop by 25.4 million tons per year.

If you are going a distance less than 1 mile, walk instead of driving. Going further? Ride your bike. Both save gas and parking costs while improving health and reducing risks of obesity. Or if the distance is too far to bike, carpool or consider mass transit. Make sure to lobby your local government to increase spending on sidewalks and bike lanes, because these improvements can pay huge dividends in bettering health and reducing traffic with very little cost. If you must drive alone, be sure to combine trips, completing as many errands in one trip as possible.

In the US, 21% of the all energy used is consumed in homes. Over 40% of home energy use goes to heating and cooling; water heating and lighting uses around 20%; and appliances including refrigeration use more than 15%. A home energy audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient.

You can perform a simple energy audit yourself. With a simple walk-through you can spot many types of problems in any building. Remember to make a check-list of inspected areas and problems you found. The US Department of Energy has a lot of information on “Do-It-Yourself Home Energy Assessments,” including ideas for locating air-leaks, perfecting insulation, inspecting heating and cooling equipment, and examining the lighting throughout your home or office.

You can also hire a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough audit. A professional auditor uses a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure. Thorough assessments often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

For every $1 spent on weatherization, $1.80 is saved over time. Weatherization can reduce energy bills by 32%; weatherized households save an average of $218 per year on their energy bills.

Weatherization is achieved by modifying a building to reduce energy consumption: a tight, well-insulated house saves energy, allows for smaller capacity cooling and heating systems, and provides a comfortable environment with smaller temperature swings. Weatherizing home improvements will last for many years and will lower energy bills in all seasons.

No-cost weatherization projects include opening blinds, shades and curtains on sunny winter days; closing blinds, shades, and curtains on cold days to trap heat or on hot days to keep cool; removing window unit air conditioners in the winter to eliminate air leakage; and making sure that your fireplace has a tight-fitting damper.

Other projects include insulating and properly sealing heating ducts, sealing air leaks around doors, windows, chimneys, and electrical outlets, adding more ceiling and wall insulation and upgrading to energy efficient units.

The average home contributes two-times the amount of green house gasses as the average car.

Energy Star is a government backed symbol that tells consumers that a product meets specific energy efficiency standards that will save energy and reduce green house gas emissions.

Saving energy will save you money in the long run as well as lessen your impact on the planet. Many energy efficient products such as windows and doors, water heaters, roofs, heating and AC systems, and solar energy systems qualify for a Federal Tax Credit of up to 30% off the cost. Click here for more information.

Many appliances continue to draw a small amount of power when they are switched off. In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics and appliances is consumed while the products are turned off.

Unplug electronics when you are finished using them. Some of the most problematic energy drainers while “off”: cable boxes, sound systems, VCRs, DVD players, DVRs, computers, printers, and televisions. Cell phone and PDA chargers also pull a “phantom load” when left plugged in. When your charge is complete, unplug them.

Plug an appliance (or many) into a power strip, and then when you are done, just flip the switch to cut off power. Gadgets, like the SmartStrip, http://www.bitsltd.net/ help by cutting the power to all electronics when one is turned off.

In addition to the reduced transportation footprint of local economic activity, buying local has a strong multiplier effect in the economy. A dollar spent on local products and services can circulate in the community up to 15 times; a 10% change in purchasing from national chain stores to locally owned businesses each year would create 1,300 new jobs and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity.

Food isn’t the only thing you can get locally, so think before you buy. You might be able to find new or gently used products in our area instead of shipping furniture, appliances, or other items across the country (wasting money and energy). Check out garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops for clothing and other everyday items.

Donate local too. You can donate used cell phones and chargers, furniture clothing and cleaning and school supplies to local agencies to keep the products in the area.

The manufacturing of bottles to meet the American demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil each year, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for that year. Each year over 500 billion disposable bags are consumed worldwide (1 million every minute). Decreasing the number of disposable products in your life decreases the carbon footprint of manufacturing, transportation, and disposal.

Invest up front in durable, reusable bags, bottles, towels, mops, pots and pans, and anything else you need. Over the life of the products, you will save money, reduce waste, and reduce the energy intensive extraction of virgin resources.

Instead of buying pricey bottled water, use a water filter to purify tap water and a reusable bottle. Bottled water generates a large amount of container waste. In addition, disposable water bottles are usually marketed in plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin and making bottles from PET means releasing significant amounts of air pollutants (1 kilogram of PET causes the release of 40 grams of hydrocarbons, 25 grams of sulfur oxides, 18 grams of carbon monoxide, 20 grams of nitrogen oxides, and 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide.) And while bottles made from PET are recyclable, of the 14 billion water bottles sold in the United States each year, 90% wind up in the trash.

BYOB: Bring your own bag! Plastic bags do not biodegrade, they photodegrade (break down into smaller toxic bits which contaminate soil, waterways, and the food chain). Hundreds of thousands of marine animals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags.

Remember that even though paper towels are commonplace, they are not the only solution to a mess. Products made of cotton or linen can be washed and reused many times over. In some cases sponges, which offer a longer product lifetime, can easily handle the work you may normally relegate to a paper towel.

The average meal travels anywhere between 1,200 to 2,500 miles from pasture to plate. A basic diet of imported ingredients can require up to four times the energy of an equivalent locally-sourced diet.

Make sure to pay attention to grocery store labels to find out where fruits, vegetables, meat, fishes, and other fresh food comes from. Or you can visit your local farmers’ market or co-op. In addition, locally owned coffee shops and restaurants often support other local suppliers more than the larger chains. Don’t be shy, ask where your food comes from.

Remember that small, local farms are not likely externalizing the costs of growing your food onto the environment or onto laborers. Don’t be surprised to find yourself paying closer to the true cost of growing and distributing the food.

Research suggests that the conversion of 10,000 small- to medium-sized farms to organic production practices would store carbon in the soil equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road. Planting and maintaining a garden reconnects us with the true value of food.

It is really not as complicated as it may seem. If you have access to a deck, a roof, a patch of ground no larger than a flower bed or far more space, you can grow your own food. Start small in a spot that gets sun all year and cover the area with organic material like leaves or dried grass.

Pick out your favorite vegetables and plant them! Make sure to keep your soil damp though. You can even make your own compost pile from table scraps and other garden waste, in the corner of your garden. If you don’t have room for a compost bin, just heap up all the clean organic material you can get and mix it up occasionally. Then apply the compost periodically to the soil around your plants.

Up to 30% of a household energy footprint can come from moving water from its source to the home. A faucet that is dripping just one drip per second will waste about four gallons of water in just one day or 1,400 gallons in a year. The average household could conserve water by 34% per year by installing water-efficient fixtures and appliances.

Fix leaks as soon as you detect them. You can install low-flush toilets and showerheads and faucet aerators. A quick fix is to use toilet-displacement devices (a simple bag filled with rocks will suffice).

If you don’t want to modify existing plumbing, there are many easy behavioral changes you can make. In your kitchen, only run the dishwasher when it is full or if you wash dishes by hand, fill a bucket or the sink first instead of letting the water run continuously. Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth or shaving, take shorter showers, and use toilets only to carry away sanitary waste. And only run the laundry machine with a full load.

Remember that landscaping alone accounts for 20-30% of all residential water use- so cut down on sprinkler use. Also try to water your lawn early in the morning or late in the evening to reduce evaporation. Allowing the grass to grow slightly taller will reduce water loss by providing more ground shade. Growing native plants can save more than 50% of the water normally used to care for outdoor plants.

Other Carbon Reduction Tips

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint From Driving

1.) Drive a low carbon vehicle. High mileage doesn’t always mean low CO2 emissions. All vehicles have an estimated miles-per-gallon rating. Electric cars emit no CO2 if they’re charged with clean electricity. If you don’t charge it with your home’s solar panels AND live somewhere like WY, MO, MO, WV, or KY you’re BETTER OFF with a hybrid or high-mileage gas/diesel car. Here’s why. After incentives and gas savings, it essentially costs nothing to switch to an electric car like the the Nissan Leaf.

Get a hitch-mounted cargo rack. Don’t buy a minivan or SUV if you don’t need 4WD and/or will only occasionally need the extra space. A receiver hitch and a rack like this one only cost a few hundred bucks. Avoid roof-top boxes, which cost much more, increase aerodynamic drag, and decrease fuel economy.

Tire inflation and other tuning. Properly inflated tires improve your gas mileage by up to 3%. It also helps to use the correct grade of motor oil, and to keep your engine tuned, because some maintenance fixes, like fixing faulty oxygen sensors, can increase fuel efficiency by up to 40%.

Avoid traffic. Being stuck in traffic wastes gas and unneccessarily creates CO2. Use traffic websites and apps and go a different way or wait.

General. Until petroleum-based aviation fuel is replaced, you should avoid flying when possible, fly less frequently, fly shorter distances, and fly economy class.

Leisure Air Travel. Take fewer and longer vacations that are far away, and more frequent and driveable “staycations” closer to home.

Work Air Travel. Increase your use of video-conferencing tools like Skype and Facetime.

What class? Economy class is best, for the same reasons as carpooling and public transportation. Each flyer’s share of a flight’s carbon emissions is relatively less because it’s spread out over more people.

That’s Economy class. When Price William flies economy class, he’s leading by example. Then there’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, or the Sultan of Brunei, who buy entire economy-size planes and convert them into flying palaces.

Don’t fly on private jets. Fly first or business class if you must, because at least those seats always fill up anyway, and avoid private jets, including services like NetJets and XOJET.

Don’t be a space tourist. Watch NOVΛ on PBS instead. Richard Branson’s “spaceline” Virgin Galactic seeks to right the injustice that “most of our planet’s seven billion people have had no opportunity to experience space” and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin promises “life-changing views” of what’s left of our planet.

How to determine your carbon footprint? Measuring your carbon footprint not only reveals where you’re currently at, but also helps to identify areas for improvement and track your progress...

To learn what you can do that is effective to help fix global warming caused climate destabilization, click here.

To learn why the term climate destabilization is replacing the terms climate change and global warming, click here.